American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias®

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Jarrott, S. E.
Right arrow Articles by Greene, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Jarrott, S. E.
Right arrow Articles by Greene, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias®, Vol. 20, No. 3, 181-190 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/153331750502000308
© 2005 SAGE Publications

Instrumental help and caregivers' distress: Effects of change in informal and formal help

Shannon E. Jarrott, PhD

Department of Human Development, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia

Steven H. Zarit, PhD

Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

Mary Ann Parris Stephens, PhD

Department of Psychology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

Aloen Townsend, PhD

University Center on Aging and Health, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

Rick Greene

Administration on Aging, Washington, DC

Family caregivers of persons with dementia rely on a range of resources to provide care and cope with caregiving stressors. Informal (unpaid) and formal (paid) instrumental support contribute to diverse caregiver outcomes. Previous research of caregiver support has focused on subjective measures of help or has compared caregivers receiving formal services to those who do not. We focused instead on the effects of change in the amount of formal and informal instrumental assistance on caregivers' distress. We expected that greater gains in assistance would be associated with greater reduction of caregivers' distress. Increases in formal but not informal levels of assistance were associated with improvement in each measure of distress. Additional measures may be needed to fully understand the effects of informal and formal assistance.

Key Words: dementia • caregiving • informal help • formal help • caregiver distress


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?